The Vidyard Player: browser and device compatibility

Playback requirements

At Vidyard, we endeavour to guarantee full functionality for the Vidyard Player across all modern HTML5 browsers. In supported browsers, the Vidyard player operates using TLS 1.2 security protocol and HLS technology to deliver video content in H.264/AAC.

This document lists the browsers and devices that support the Vidyard Player. It also includes information about supported mobile OS and autoplay functionality.

For outdated browsers that do not meet the standards required to support the Vidyard Player, we’ve created a legacy player that will continue to allow playback, but without the extra bells and whistles. This ensures that your videos will still play, while allowing Vidyard to continue to develop using the most recent technologies available.

Tip: It’s important to keep your browser as up to date as possible. Vidyard works hard to guarantee support across different iterations of browsers, but ongoing browser updates may affect our support for older versions.

A note about Windows support

Due to a limitation of the Windows 7 operating system, viewers attempting to play HLS video content using Internet Explorer 11 will be served a modified version of the Vidyard Player.

This player offers all regular player functionality except for resolution options, playback speed, and multi-track audio controls.

Limited-support OS/browsers

If using a limited-support browser, Vidyard will continue to serve video content through our flash-powered legacy player.

The legacy player is designed to allow playback, but does not permit much of the functionality expected from the Vidyard Player in supported browsers (for example, captions, multi-track audio, Vidyard events). Analytics will be served as a "best effort".

For players with security features, such as access codes, IP range whitelists, JSON web tokens, etc., the legacy version of those players will be prevented from working.

The following is a list of limited-support desktop browsers and Mobile OS:

Browser

Version

Internet Explorer

v9 and below

Android

v4.4 and below

iOS

v6 and below

Blackberry

BB10 and below

Vidyard also offers the ability to disable the legacy player. This can be done on a per player basis or as a default setting.

Keep in mind, default player settings apply to all newly created players going forward. If you want the setting to apply to players that were created before the change in default settings, this can be done either a) manually, or b) through use of the bulk asset manager.

To disable legacy mode on an individual player:

From the Vidyard dashboard, select Content > Players

Hover over the desired player, then click Settings

Toggle Display Legacy Mode to ON. This will precent the player from loading in unsupported browsers.

Supported mobile OS/device

*Assuming only major browsers on these platforms (for example, Chrome on Android devices, Safari on iOS).

Operating System

Version

Android

v4.4+

iOS

v7+

Autoplay by OS/browser

Shortly after video became supported on mobile devices, muted autoplay became imposed as a restrict on mobile platforms in the interest of conserving battery life, preventing unwanted data usage, and to improve the overall user experience.

With the introduction of Chrome v66, Google has further extended muted autoplay to desktop browsers with changes to the way Chrome handles video, GIFs and other media.

Much like Apple’s policy introduced with Safari v11, Chrome now only allows muted autoplay. Users must perform a gesture ( e.g. click, swipe) to enable audio or pass a certain threshold on the Media Engagement Index (MEI) to allow video content from a particular website or domain to autoplay with sound.

As major internet browsers continue to move toward further restrictions on autoplay and enable users greater control over how they experience media content on the web, there are some general notes to keep in mind:

These changes affect all kinds of video players and visual media on the internet (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.), including the Vidyard player.

Browsers have implement these new behaviors to provide users with greater control over how they consume media. Ideally, it also improves the quality of clicks, impressions, and views that publishers receive from their content.

Muted autoplay helps to further unify the web experience between desktop and mobile.

Browser/OS

Autoplay rules

Desktop

Chrome

Videos with autoplay are muted. Autoplay with audio is allowed if threshold on MEI passed.

Firefox

Autoplay with audio is allowed.

Safari

Videos with autoplay are muted. You may whitelist websites to autoplay media in the Safari preferences “Websites” tab.

Autoplay and GoVideo

Restrictions to autoplay pose a particular challenge to GoVideo users who share their recordings via email.

In addition to clicking on the video thumbnail in an email to load the sharing page, individuals who receive a GoVideo recording may also have to unmute the video after it fails to autoplay with sound.

We think this creates a poor experience for GoVideo users and their audiences.

As a solution, we’ve implemented the autoplay=2 query string. Autoplay=2 allows the player to detect whether the browser will mute the video. If the browser will allow autoplay with sound, autoplay will proceed. Otherwise, the video thumbnail will display instead.

Autoplay=2 is applied by default to GoVideo recordings that have been configured to use autoplay.

Event compatibility on mobile

Most notably, Apple iOS did not support use of the <playsinline> element prior to iOS v10. This element is required to watch videos outside of fullscreen mode. The same <playsinline> element now allows viewers to see events that have been added to videos when playing inline.

OS

Fullscreen events (includes Marketo forms)

Annotations

iOS (v10+)

iOS supports the use of pre-roll and post-roll events.

The video must contain the <playsinline> element for the event to display.